Mail-catcher.



W. B. CHATHAM.

MAIL CATCHER.

APPLICATION FILED 1AN.\0.1916. 1,236,908. Patented Aug. 14,1917.

I 2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

W. B.- CHATHAM.

MAIL CATCHER.

APPLICATION FILED JAN-.10. 19x6.

Pat'ehted- Aug. 14, 1917;

UNITED STAT FFIC.

MAIL-CAT CHER.

Application filed January 10, 1916.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WooDY B. CHATHAM, a citizen of the United States ofAmerica, and resident of Hattiesburg, in the county of Forrest and Stateof Mississippi, have invented certain new and useful Improvements inMail-Catchers, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to mail catchers H and particularly toautomatically operated means for releasing mail pouches from cranes andfor simultaneously grasping or clamping the said pouch so that it may bereceived by the passing mail coach or by the stationary crane, thusenabling the interexchange of mail pouches during the travel of a mailcoach.

A still further object of this invention is to provide novel means forsuspending mail pouches and means for operating the said suspendingmeans for the purpose of causing it to assume a position to receive aloop or eye by which the mail pouch is suspended, the said suspendingmeans including jaws pressed into operative relation with one another.

With the foregoing and other objects in view, the invention consists inthe details of construction, and in the arrangement and combination ofparts to be hereinafter more fully set forth and claimed.

In describing the invention in detail, ref erence will be had to theaccompanying drawings forming part of this specification wherein likecharacters denote corresponding parts in the several views, and inwhich- Figure 1 illustrates a view in elevation of a crane, andfragmental showing of a coach in section, with the pouch supporting andremoving apparatus in elevation;

Fig. 2 illustrates a horizontal sectional view of a car showing the mailcatching mechanism in plan;

Fig. 3 illustrates a view in elevation of a fragment of the body of amail coach showing the crane carried thereby;

Fig. illustrates a top plan view of a pouch holding device;

Fig. 5 illustrates a perspective view of one of the pouch engagingelements;

Fig. 6 illustrates a perspective View of the other pouch engagingelements; and Fig. 7 illustrates a detail View of a pouch attachment forsuspending the said pouch.

Specification of Letters Patent.

guides 16 projecting Patented Aug. 14, 1917. Serial No. 71,230.

In these drawings 10 denotes the coach body having a rotatable post 11therein, the said post furthermore having one end of a spring 12attached to it, the said spring having its other end attached oranchored to the side of the coach body so that the said spring normallyholds the post in a position with the arms 13 and 14 which are carriedby the said post inside of the coach body. In other words, when thepouches are not to be received or delivered, these arms are preferablywithin the coach body, whereas when the pouches are to be received ordelivered, the post is rotated so as to swing the arms into side of thecoach for a purpose to be presently explained. When the arms are intheir outwardly extended positions, they may be so held by a bolt 15oscillatable in suitable from the side of the coach and this bolt may beactuated by an arm or handle 17 extending to the interior of the coachbody.

Externally of the coach body and prefer ably at the side of the trackover which the coach is to be run, there is a crane 18 having arms 19and 20 and the equipment of the arms 19 and 20 is practically theduplicate of the equipment carried by the arms 18 and 14, the onlydiflerence being that they are at different altitudes so that an elementof the arm 20 operates to remove a pouch held by the equipment carriedby the arm 14, whereas a pouch removing member carried by the arm 13will operate to remove the pouch from the equipment carried by the arm19.

As the parts are duplicated, a description of the equipment carried byeither of the arms 14: Or 19 will suflice as a description of suchelements and the same is true with respect to the members carried by thearms 13 and .20.

The members carried by the arms 13 and 20 are of very simpleconstruction and they comprise rods or bars 21 which are partiallyrotatable in guides 22 and the outer end of each rod or bar terminatesin a grab hook 23 adapted to receive a mail pouch 24. The inner end ofeach bar 21 has an angular portion 25 which limits the degree ofrotation of the bar. Then a coach passes one of the cranes, the grabhook of the bar on the crane may remove a pouch from a pouch suspendingequipment of the crane,

position to project from the' thus affording an intereXchange of mailpouches for obviously, the pouch may be delivered or received without anexchange should there be no pouch for delivery to the coach or to thecrane.

The pouch suspending equipment, one of which is supplied to each craneand one of which is carried by the arm of each coach, consists of atongue-like structure, the jaws 25 and 26 of which clamp an eye. or loop27 on the mail pouch and the said jaws are connected together by thepivot 28 and the tail pieces 29 and 30 of the jaws 25 and 26respectively are spaced apart and there are interposed between themsprings 81 and 32 which have the effect of pressing them apart so thatthe jaws are held close together. In the present embodiment of theinvention, the springs 31 and 32 have their inner ends anchored in seats33 and 3% formed in the posts of the cranes. The jaws constitute thesupports for a pouch as it is suspended and necessarily must be in theiropen position when the loop or ring of a pouch is being insertedtherebetween, therefore, I have provided an operating means comprising ayoke provided with apertures 38 to receive a pivot 39 which pivot alsoextends through the bracket to on one of the arms 1 lor 19 so that thesaid yoke is pivotally mounted with relation to said arms and the rearends of the yoke embrace the tailpieces 29 and 30 of the jaws andoperate to press the tail-pieces against the action of the springs 31and 32, which movement is effective to move the jaws to an open positionto allow a ring or loop of a mail pouch to be positioned therebetween.It follows, therefore, that when the loop or ring has been positionedand the yoke moved to its normal position the mail pouch is rigidlysupported, and the eye or loop is in a position to be grasped by thereceiving hook of the train or crane whichever the case might be.

The construction of the bag supporting element is clearly shown in Fig.7, and it will be seen that the eye or loop is sufficiently large toallow a receiving hook to be in serted therein.

I. claim 1. In a mail crane, a post, arms extending therefrom, clampingjaws pivotally connected to one of the arms, the tail pieces of theclamping jaws extending rearwardly of the pivot of the jaws, a yokepivotally mounted to engage the tail pieces for moving the clampingjaws, and means for yieldingly holding the tail pieces apart.

2. In a mail crane, a post, arms extending therefrom, jaws pivotallyconnected to one or the arms, said jaws having tail pieces eX- tendingbeyond the pivot of the arm, a yoke pivotally connected to the arm andhaving ends embracing the tail pieces of the jaws for pressing the sametogether, yieldable means for holding the said tail pieces apart,

a pouch engaging member, and a grab hook carried by the other armadapted to coact with pouch supporting means, one of said pouchsupporting instrumentalities and grab hooks being mounted to have motionwith respect to the other set of pouch supporting and grabbinginstrumentalities.

3. in a mail crane, a post, means for rotatably nounting the post, meansfor holding the post in one position of adjustment, means for operatingthe said holding means, arms extending from the post, jaws pivot allyconnected to one of the arms, said jaws 0 having tail pieces extendingbeyond the pivot of the arm, a yoke pivotally connected to the arm andhaving ends embracing the tail pieces of the jaws for pressing the sametogether, yieldable means for holding the said tail pieces apart, and agrab hook carried by the otherarin adapted to coact with pouchsupporting means, one of said pouch supporting instrumentalities andgrab hooks being mounted to have motion with respect to. the other setof pouch supporting and grabbing instrumentalities.

In testimony whereof, I hereunto atlix my signature in the presence oftwo Witnesses.

woonr B. GHATHAM.

Witnesses:

J. I. ALPI-IIN, G. H. BURCH.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Patents. Washington, D. G.

